Journal of Agriculture. [ii Jan., 1909. 



VV^ith flock ewes the method mentioned in the Sydney Wool and Stock 

 Journal by Mr. H. H. KeHy (if Ga.iriw ilhi Station, Gunnedah, N.S.W., is. 

 tt he commended fi,r speeti and for being effectuah His plan is to have 

 a trough made of an\ length to suit the number of sheep to be treated and 

 the number of men employed and to sit the ewes in a mixture of sheep 

 dip, at a strength according to the degree of damage the flies are doing. 

 In some districts, twice the strength of ordinary dipping may be found 

 necessary, but some classes of sheep are worse than others. Where sweating 

 is caused bv folds meeting, these parts will need to be hand dressed witfi 

 a stronger mixture. In a few cases the skin will crack and the flies may 

 leave the maggots in these cracks, but they never develop to any size. It 

 is onlv when the sediment from the bottom of the tin is put on that this 

 cracking happens. 



In manv stud ewe lanibs the growth of wool over the head forces the 

 evelids in, and these ingrowing eyelids cause great irritation and pain ; 

 in ram lambs the horns lessen the pressure of wool over the eyes. A 

 small piece of skin immediately above and below the eyelashes can be 

 cut out, and the gap made by this means, when healing together, will 

 draw the e\elashes out, causing the irritation to cease. Complaints 

 regarding ingrowing eyelids are much more prevalent than many breeders 

 are aware of. 



Inerowing evelids, scald, and wool blindness, if not attended to, will 

 pre\ent stud weaner ewes from thrivmg, no matter how one may study 

 constitution and feed them. The narrow made, short stapled, excessively 

 volky tvpe of sheep are not worth this trouble, as tb.ey are not stud sheep 

 in anv sense, and are a very unsuitable type in the general flocks. They 

 are bred in flocks where weight per head is made the desired aim, although 

 thev will cccasionallv come in anv stud. 



SPRING SOWN RAPE. 



H. ir. Ham, Sheep Exfert. 



Spring .sown rape cannot l)e advocated for general lamb-raising pur- 

 poses. It is the earlv sown April rape, mixed with oats and allowed to 

 grow to a heavy bulk of feed till about August, that turns off the surprising 

 numbers of lambs and ewes. 



Even in good rainfall areas all soils arc not <'xactlv suitable for suc- 

 cessful summer rape growing. Any soils that set hard will retard the 

 growth of roots, y)reventing them striking out sufficientlv far to gather 

 moisture. If it is the nature of the ground to harden and crack, it is no 

 use for profitable summer ra])e growing. Of course, in many instances, 

 even on cement like soil or on cold so-called crab holey country, it pays 

 to grow rape, not so much for the profit to l>e made from sheep or lambs, 

 as for the change and consequent good it does the soil. The objection 

 manv farmers have to spring sown rape is that they have to plough the 

 land the second time, and this makes them late getting their crops in. It 

 certainly is an advantage to have a good i)ortion of bare fallow, as it can 

 be kept worked ready to sow immediately after the first rains in March. 

 With ground that is at all liable to set and where early sowing' is necessary, 

 a bare fallow Id allow of carh working is, generallv speaking, the wisest. 

 On loose buck shot countr\. if it lias been ploughed well in the winter, a 



